I have a folder with 5 mpeg4 files totaling just under 200 mb. I want to burn them so I can use them in class. Would there be a difference in quality between doing it on a CD or a DVD?

Thanks.

Good question ? ?

I thought the only difference is that a DVD burns on a 2nd layer so it holds more data and I am not sure if you can play a DVD in a CD player ?

Burning them with Toast? Are you going to play them from a computer launching each file separately, or by using a standalone DVD player?

I don't have Toast, I usually burn through the Finder.

The plan is to play them through my Dell laptop, each file separately.

I realized after making this post that it was a waste of time, that I should just burn one of each and learn by doing, the process we teachers are constantly telling our students to follow.

If it matters, the files are YouTube HD files converted to mpeg4.

I will just go ahead and do both and let you know the result.

Well gee, I felt honored to try and help the man with two brains full of worthless trivia.

Just burn them all to a CD. DVD won't matter quality wise. For what you're doing it's just copying identical 1's and 0's using the Finder copy, pure and easy.

If it weren't for all that useless trivia, maybe I could figure out how to burn discs.

For the record, I burned the folder of 5 mpg4 files onto a CD and a DVD-R. Results: neither works on the dedicated DVD player in my room, the DVD-R will not play in my Dell laptop but the CD files do play on my Dell through Quicktime but not Windows Media Player.

Yeah, you only burned data discs so you need to manually launch the files. To make a video disc you would need Toast or something to burn the disc in a video disc format.

Thanks, Rb, I'll try to find some place in my brain to store that bit of information.

Can I put those mpg4 files into iMovie or iDvd?

OK, I got home and started playing around. I can import mpeg 4 files if they are not too long. 4 of the 5 files are too long but the machine is telling me I can use QT Pro (which I have) to cut them up. Probably not tonight but some time this week, I will get to work on it.

Only 3 more Mondays in this school year, one I will be glad to see behind me. My science department is losing 3 of 21 teachers. This is not a fun time of the year.

Once summer starts, I should have plenty of time to work on projects like this as well as learning how to use the new telescope and digital imager.

If you want to edit the movies use iMovie, or QT Pro, then use iDVD to make a standard DVD out of the movies to play in any DVD player. You can put them all on one DVD and each will have its own little button in a menu, you choose a theme for the background, menus, music that plays during the menu, etc. Just like a real DVD. You can have it auto play on insert.

You'll figure it out, but a couple of tips I can give to make the learning easier, use the Save as Disc Image feature when you're experimenting instead of burning a disc, and use small clips to save time. You can mount the finished .img on the computer and play it in DVD Player to preview what it will look like rather than wasting DVD's.